Why both American Jews and Muslims backed Obama by huge margins
Posted at 06:17 PM ET, 11/09/2012 Nov 09, 2012 11:17 PM EST
TheWashingtonPost Why American Jews and Muslims backed Obama by huge margins
By Marc Schneier and Shamsi Ali
What do these similar vote totals in support of President Obama say about our two communities? First, the results show that majorities of American Jews and American Muslims support President Obama’s vision of an inclusive society where people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds have a chance to succeed. Jews and Muslims alike embrace the vision the president has articulated that “we are all in this together” and that government—as well as religious communities--should be ready and willing to extend a helping hand to members of our society in desperate need.
There is, however, a second reason for the overwhelming support for Obama among American Jews and Muslims; namely that both communities strongly reject the anti-Muslim rhetoric articulated by prominent Republicans during the past several years. For example, national Republican leaders shamelessly demagogued the bogus “Ground Zero mosque” controversy of 2010 and held congressional hearings in 2011 based on the false claim that 80 percent of American mosques support Islamic radicalism. This year some Republican congressional leaders also claimed the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the U.S. State Department, while Republican-controlled legislatures in states such as Oklahoma and Kansas passed wholly unnecessary and unconstitutional bans on sharia (Islamic) law.
Despite loud and well-funded efforts to enlist the Jewish community in the Islamophobia campaign of recent years, the majority of American Jews have emphatically rejected it. They have done so because they view demonizing adherents of another faith as contrary to basic Jewish moral values of tolerance and compassion and a violation of Biblical injunctions such as “welcome the stranger.” Also, retaining a searing historical memory of having endured centuries of anti-Semitism which culminated in the Holocaust, Jews feel in their kishkes (guts) that if another religious or ethnic group is attacked today, they themselves may be targeted tomorrow.
Over the past five years, the two of us have successfully brought together Muslims and Jews in North America and Europe as part of a long term effort to build a movement of Muslims and Jews committed to communication, reconciliation and cooperation. We are hopeful in the wake of President Obama’s electoral victory that, after some dark days, America’s celebration of racial, ethnic and religious diversity is reasserting itself. That is a development from which both of our communities can take heart and celebrate together.
Rabbi Marc Schneier, who is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, delivered a benediction at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Imam Shamsi Ali is imam of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, the largest mosque in New York. Schneier and Ali have coauthored a forthcoming book, “Sons of Abraham,” about their friendship and Muslim-Jewish coexistence.
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